


Spoilers

by IWillSinkWithMyShips



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 1940s, Doctor Who References, M/M, Time Travel, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:02:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23767048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWillSinkWithMyShips/pseuds/IWillSinkWithMyShips
Summary: Tony gets sent back to the 1940s and even though Steve doesn't know him, there is no way he's letting him die. Not like this.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 9
Kudos: 112





	Spoilers

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on Doctor Who's episode "The Forest of the Dead" I love River Song and the Doctor. Going back to see this scene after watching their story is bittersweet. I couldn't help but picture SteveTony in this scenario. Once I started writing it I couldn't help but add some things, such as WWII!SteveBucky. 
> 
> Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thank you!

1942.

He’d been sent back in time to 1942.

Tony had found himself in a number of different difficult situations before, but this one took the cake. 

Like many of bad situations in his life, this was all Reed Richard’s fault. He had asked Tony to consult in a time traveling machine, and in an effort to avoid dinosaurs to attacking New York he’d agreed. All he’d seen was a flash of blue light and then he’d been standing in Nazi Germany during WWII where he’d been found by The Howling Commandoes. 

So far it had been a pretty awkward affair. First he’d had to somehow prove that he was not a Nazi, meet his father - who just happened to be younger than Tony right now - and look into the eyes of Captain America before his 70 year long chilly nap. It took some time but he somehow managed to convince them that he was in fact from the future, but since the technology he needed to get back to his time doesn’t still exist he’s been traveling with Steve and his team in search of tech scraps to help him build his own time machine. 

If Tony was being honest, it had been one of the hardest things he’d ever experience. Seeing the man he loved not recognize him hurt something deep within him. This Steve Rogers didn’t trust Tony very much and had only allowed Tony to join the Commandos because he’d been ordered to. 

This Steve Rogers was also in love with someone else. 

It was hard to miss the loving looks exchanged by Steve and Barnes, the way the two of them just gravitated towards each other, the way that Barnes looked as if Steve had hung the moon and stars and the way Steve would burn the world for Bucky Barnes. 

So yeah, not a fun adventure for Tony, and things only seemed to get worse. 

“Rhodes!” Barnes barked his fake name, “we have a bomb that seems to run on the same energy as those Hydra guns. If this detonates god knows what it would do. We need a way to shut it down.” 

“If that thing goes off it could destroy all of Europe.” Tony worried and began thinking of everything he knew about the tesseract. He needed to shut it down. “Perhaps it could be shut down by using one of the guns and using it to penetrate the force field and using it the bomb to destroy itself, but that would very likely cause the person doing it to be caught in the blast. Not a large blast but the proximity would cause someone to get caught on the crossfire. Plus we would need something to kickstart it.” Tony rambled, he needed to fix this. There was no way he was letting Steve died in the 1940s. Without ever having met him. 

“Steve! Wait!” Barnes howled. Tony’s heart dropped as he saw Steve run into the base. 

“Steve! What is he doing?!” he demanded. Barnes gritted his teeth and continued shooting.

“He’s being and idiot. Cover me, I need to go after him.” 

“What, no!” Tony grabbed his tools and a weapon, “you stay here. I am going to send him back out here and take a closer look at the bomb and try and stop it from blowing up.”

“Rhodes! You are a civilian. Stay here, I’ll get him.”

“No! Someone has to stop this, and neither of you would leave the other behind. Stay here, I’ll send him out.” And with that he ran after Steve. 

“Mr. Rhodes,” Steve said when he came running in, “what are you doing here? You need to get out, go!”

“No! YOU need to get out of here.” 

“I am trying to stop this bomb from blowing up us all up.”

“I’ll have better luck at this than you. Please leave and let me take care of this.”

“Why? Because you are from the future?” and you could hear the disbelief in his voice, “I am sorry Mr. Rhodes but this is on me. This is my job.” 

“Jesus Christ Steve! I get it, I am a stranger and you don’t trust me, but why would I want to blow this us all up? Please! Leave and let me deal with this bomb.” 

“Is not a matter of trust, I need to stop this, and I am a lot more durable than anyone else. Now get out.”

“May you never steal, lie, or cheat, but if you must steal, then steal away my sorrows, and if you must lie, lie with me all the nights of my life, and if you must cheat, then please cheat death because I couldn’t live a day without you” 

Steve froze where he stood and slowly turned back to face Tony who walked closer to him.

“What? Where did you hear that?” his face was pale and his jaw clenched. 

“Steve, one day I am going to be someone you trust. Completely. But I can’t wait for you to find that out. So I’m going to prove it to you, and I am sorry. I am really very sorry.” Tony pulled at the chain around his neck and showed him.

“Those…those are my dog tags…and my…my father’s ring. Where did you get this?” he thundered. Tony pulled them back to his chest.

“You still have yours, probably around your neck, or Barnes to be honest. But these here? These are mine. You gave them to me. In 2014.”

“What? That’s.. that’s impossible.”

“Then how come I know your parents’ vows.” Steve paled further and Tony took his moment of hesitation to do what he needed to do. 

He activated his watch gauntlet and knocked Steve out. Like hell he was letting him die here. Steve remained unconscious while he place super soldier handcuffs on him, nanotech, and began working on getting the bomb deactivated. 

By the time Steve began waking up again, Tony had already hooked up the gun and the arc reactor in his chest to the bomb and pulled out his phone.

“Auto-destruct in two minutes.” FRIDAY warned from his phone. 

“Oh, no, no, no! What are you doing? That's my job.” Steve yelled. 

“What, I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?” he snarked back. 

“Why am I handcu- Why do you even have handcuffs?”

“Spoilers.”

“This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is gonna kill you! I'll have a chance, you don't have any!”

“You wouldn't have a chance and neither do I! I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the power flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean shut down.”

“Tony, please, no!”

“Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you - the real you, the future you, I mean - you turned up on our doorstep with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to SHIELD’s Helicarrier to see the New York skyline. Oh, what a night that was. The city was safe… and you cried.”

“Auto-destruct in one minute.” FRIDAY said. 

“You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time - my time, time for this little trip. You even gave me your dog tags to keep safe, even though you weren’t going on a mission, that should have been a clue.” The dog tags and ring laid on Tony’s chest, and Steve struggled to break free from his bonds. 

“There's nothing you can do.” Tony said sorrowfully. 

“Let me do this!”

“If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.”

“Time can be rewritten!”

“Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay, it's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run.”

“Tony you know those vows,”

“Auto-destruct in 10…"

“And you wear my dog tags and my father’s ring.”

“...9, 8, 7, 6…” Tony played with his phone, looking at the last pictures he had of him and his husband. Because that may be Steve tied to that pole, but HIS Steve, his husband, the love of his life, was 80 years in the future. 

“There's only one reason I would ever tell anyone those vows, and give them that ring…”

“…5..."

“There's only one way I could…"

“…4..."

“Hush, now.” Tony consoled.

“...3, 2…"

“Spoilers.”

“…1"

There is a flash of bright light, and when Steve opens his eyes back up, Tony and the bomb are both gone. 

“Steve! Stevie!” Bucky calls out as he runs into the room.

“…I’m here.”

“What happened?” Bucky shoots the handcuffs and they fall off. 

“He’s gone. He sacrificed himself.”

“Oh. You alright?” Steve turns to look at him, gray eyes stare back at him and Steve debates telling him everything. Because Tony had known his parent’s vows, and he had his dog tags and his father’s ring. The same ring that he knows is safe back in his room, just like he knows Bucky wears his dog tags and his mother’s ring hanging from his neck. 

“Yeah, I’m just sorry I didn’t get to know who he really was.”

———NEW YORK CITY, 2020———

Everything hurt.

He could hear a faint beeping coming from the his left side, that he really wish would stop. He groaned and tried to shut whatever that was, but his hand was being held by another one. Slowly he tried to open his eyes and met a harsh bright ceiling. He blinked slowly and tried to get his thoughts in order. The last thing he remembered was…the Hydra base…Steve…the bomb…Steve…

He gasped. The hand holding his squeeze it. He turned to find Steve beside him a tearful smile in his face. 

“Hello, Sweetheart.”


End file.
